


Of the marks we make

by Bee_activist



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender, klance - Fandom
Genre: Gay, Hunk is perfect and the best friend, M/M, Shay will be here don't worry, all the mistakes in here are mine please forgive my sinful ways, boys in love but they will not know they're in love for a little bit, lots of pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-10-19 03:04:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10630830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bee_activist/pseuds/Bee_activist
Summary: In the story of Lance McClain who's hopelessly pining after the most beautiful and simultaneously edgy boy he's ever seen, a need for more mundane adventures in college life, and of seeing things clearly through something other than words.





	1. My Chemical Romance Snap Back Hats

**Author's Note:**

> You'll never believe who's back with a chapter fic after your girl is notorious for being the absolute worst at updating but I have some big plans for this and i'm quite happy with how it's starting out! This is my first Klance fanfiction though Voltron has recently vamoosed into my life. I hope you all enjoy. (as a disclaimer everything about University life that is in this fic is a 3/4 educated guess)

Lance decided, that out of all of his options, death seemed the most reasonable. 

Lance pondered at his desk, zoning out enough from looking over the professor's shoulder to make it at least  _ seem _ like he was paying attention to look at the clock. Then eventually, as he did every Earth Science lecture, he found himself sitting completely sideways in his uncomfortable chair, putting his legs on Hunk’s lap and trying his hardest to draw on Hunk’s paper or whisper scream dumb jokes to try and make Hunk laugh.

Hunk would always side eye Lance - making eye contact with him and then firmly looking down at Lance’s blank study sheet as if to say ‘ _ come on, you need to work! _ ’ but soon enough Hunk couldn’t fight the amused blush that would spread over his face and they would both erupt into a fit of giggles until Pidge would shush the both of them harshly from the seat beside Lance.

“God,” Pidge mumbled loud enough for Lance to hear. “I knew taking a class with you would be  _ literally _ the worst mistake of my life.”

Lance cocked his head at Pidge and put both feet on the ground leaning his head on his desk and whisper screaming at them, “I think you mean, being in a class with me was _figuratively_ the worst decision of your life. I mean, come on, Pidge.” Lance wiggled his eyebrows playfully, “Who wouldn’t want this?”

Pidge rolled up Lance’s forgotten study sheet and smacked him with it lightly, to which Lance dramatically fell out of his chair and onto the floor. Lance decided even if death wasn’t as attainable on the first floor lecture hall in Earth Science as he had hoped ten minutes ago, lying on the floor not doing homework was the next best thing. 

Lance pulled out his phone and scrolled through his many unassorted apps that Pidge still cringed at whenever they saw his phone. Lance laughed softly to himself on the ground remembering when they had first met and Pidge borrowed his phone because they forgot their calculator in their math seminar. Pidge had thanked him curtly before scrolling through and suddenly yelling, “Dinner Dash?! What are you? A lonely housewife in her mid forties?”

Pidge kicked Lance on the ground with their foot, “If you’re going to lay on the floor do it silently.” They grumbled. Lance rolled his eyes and checked his phone seeing that he had no messages and sighed dramatically and rolled around on the floor.

“Hunk,” Lance groaned, throwing an arm over his eyes. “Why does no one like me?”

Hunk perked up at that which caught Lance’s surprise. Ever since they’d become roommates in freshman year Hunk had become adept at tuning Lance’s complaining out while he did his homework and studied, like, an actual student.  

“Lance,” Hunk said softly, turning in his chair to look at Lance on the ground, “Of course people like you. You’re my best friend, and you make people happy all the time.”

Both Pidge and Lance looked at Hunk softly, even people in other rows of their lecture hall began to tear up.

“Hunk,” Lance said, wiping away fake tears “I love you.” He said with a wink.

Hunk smiled good naturedly and rolled his eyes, all too familiar with his friend’s easy flirtatious nature.

“But that’s not what I mean.” Lance said more seriously. “I don’t feel like things are, spicy, enough. Y’know? It’s my sophmore year and i’ve done like, zero, of the crazy things I promised myself I would when I got to college.”

Lance banged his head on his desk hard and laughed when he heard Pidge sigh loudly at the pens falling off their desk with the force. Lance sat back in his chair and actually payed attention for a solid three minutes before excitedly turning back to Hunk with a barely contained whisper.

“I know what to do!” Lance pumped his fist in the air aggressively and then once more in a more contained motion when he saw the pointed looks in his direction. “We should get tattoos! We can get matching ones!” Lance gasped loudly. “We can be tattoo twins!”

Lance failed his arms happily on either side of Hunk but carefully pulled them back in at his friends blank expression. Hunk blinked at Lance. Lecture entirely forgotten. Lance saw the physical change on Hunks face from scared, to pensive, to thoughtful, to scared again, considering, and then, finally, brave. With a determined stare he turned to Lance. “I have the perfect idea.”

  
  


\---

 

“Lions?” Lance asked. He had his doubts. But it was Hunk, and Lance trusted Hunk with basically everything in the entire galaxy so he wasn’t  _ too  _ doubtful. 

“Okay, okay, I know it’s a little out there but just stay with me. I found this super cool tattoo shop called  _ Paladin _ and it was actually much cleaner in there than I was expecting for a tattoo shop. And, they played some kind of smooth jazz instead of heavy metal which I  _ definitely _ did not see coming. The guy who designed the tattoo was the amount of edgy I was originally expecting from, tattoo, people, but he was nice enough. And he’s an amazing artist! Just wait till you see the designs he made!”

Lance was practically vibrating from the excitement and the nerves building inside him. A tattoo? What kind of idea was that? Lance knew his own body, and knew his own body was not exactly a diehard fan of needles, or pain, or blood, or needles going into your body drawing blood and causing pain. Was it him who suggested this idea? Lance found the thought almost a million miles away as he bounced his leg sporadically and looked intently out the window of the passenger seat.

“And,” Hunk side eyed Lance, drawing out the word until Lance finally looked at him. “I don’t know i’m just, i’m just  _ saying _ , but he seemed a little, like, your type.”

Lance stared at him blankly until heat began to rise from his neck all the way to the tips of his ears. Hunk smiled cheekily and went back to driving. Ever since Lance had told Hunk of how his extreme charm, earth shattering smooth ways, and breathtaking good looks knew no gender, Hunk hadn’t been able to let Lance live.  _ Especially _ after Hunk found out that Lance seemed to drift towards a certain type.  Lance fumed even harder and drew himself into his seat when he remembered just the other week when Hunk had caught him intently staring at a boy wearing all black with ripped jeans and a backwards  _ My Chemical Romance _ snapback hat, worst of all leaving the  _ skate park, _ looking smug as ever. Hunk hadn’t let Lance breath easy since that day. Lance knew he had never mentally left the seventh grade, but he wasn’t aware his taste in men hadn’t either.

Lance strained his eyes to look at the shop. It was nothing special. It had a weird variety of colors on the outside that mingled from bright green to dark blue, light yellow, vivid red and all tied together with intense strands of black. Obviously going for some outer dimension type of vibe but Lance found it a little too power ranger for his taste. Hunk gazed at him nervously from the driver's seat when he pulled into a parking spot directly in front of the shop. Lance noted they didn’t look particularly busy either.

“Okay, Lance, bare with me. I know it doesn’t look like much, but, it’s what’s inside that counts. Literally.”

Hunk still looked unsure and Lance graced him with a warm smile despite his own shaking nerves.

“Hunk, I believe you.”

Hunk smiled cheekily. “So you’re not nervous then?”

Lance gaped, offended, and flailed in his seat. “What?! Me? Nervous? Hunk, sweet, sweet, Hunk. Who is this we’re talking about? Lance McClain. That’s who.” Lance tried praying to every god he could think of from his world’s religions lecture he only payed attention to roughly twenty minutes of. It wasn’t his fault that the cute (admittedly emo) boy that always seemed to appear at Lance’s most embarrassing moments around campus decided to waltz into  _ Lance’s _ class one day and take the seat across from Lance - the seat most optimal for getting one’s stalker one and catching glimpses of said beautiful boy while making it seem like he was only obnoxiously looking to the clock, which, he was also doing.

Hunk’s voice lured Lance out of his beautiful emo boy reverie. “Uh, I think I’m talking about ‘ _ the _ Lance McClain’” He said with playful air quotes, “The one who fell of his bike at Grandview park and cried for almost four hours and then didn’t ride another bike for like, a year.” Hunk pretended to look thoughtful and stroked his chin looking out the window.

“Yeah, yeah.” Lance felt a slight blush tinge his face again, “We were also, like, nine.” Lance laughed, poorly imitating Hunk’s voice. “But, okay,” Lance said, determined again. “Let’s do this.”

 

\---

 

Lance decided that, in all fairness, the shop  _ was _ a lot cleaner than he had been expecting it. He’d seen any movie, ever, and was half expected the shop to be dark and musty with occult art adorning the walls and perhaps blood painting the counters as the mob loudly beat up a guy in the back. But this,  _ Paladin _ , was absolutely nothing like that. The nicely arranged bay windows let the sunlight filter into the shop pleasantly and brightly. Leaving more than enough natural light to see and work with. There were theme color paintings and murals on the walls depicting beautiful planets and constellations Lance had never seen before.  Lance drew closer to one of the abstract planet drawings that seemed to have beautiful bouts of blue crystals sticking out of it, all centered around a very geologic formation. Lance sighed in wonder.  _ Of course _ Hunk would choose a place like this that would bring out his inner nerd and make him ogle at simple paintings on the  _ walls _ for god sake like a suburban mom who’d taken one advanced art class in high school and thus acted like an expert.

“We call that one the ‘ _ Balmera' _  " a deep voice rumbled next to his ear. Lance squeaked and jumped a vertical foot before looking towards the source of his attacker.

“Jesus Christ” Lance muttered taking in the sight before him. It was the boy. It was the beautiful boy. The beautiful boy who was at the  _ skatepark  _ wearing a My Chemical Romance snapback hat and the same one who wore fingerless gloves at 9:15am in his World Religions lecture. The same one that Lance tried desperately not to stare at for a number of dignifiable reasons but now he had no choice but to look directly into the boy’s dark My Chemical Romance loving eyes because he was right in front of him.

“What?” The boy said sharply looking at Lance, his eyes held more harsh confusion than actual annoyance but Lance could tell he was getting there.

“I was just! - just you know, uh, wow that’s wild. Balmera, right? That’s what you said? That’s not one of our planets, or a planet that, y’know, exists. Right?” Lance flushed. He was embarrassed at the look  _ that boy _ was giving him and embarrassed at himself for existing, apparently, just like some obscure planet he’d never heard about ever but looked beautiful on the tattoo shop walls.

The boy narrowed his eyes at Lance and breathed deeply. “Yeah, no. That planet doesn’t exist. Which, you would  _ know _ if you ever payed attention in our astronomy class.”

Lance flushed for approximately the seventeenth time since entering the shop fifteen minutes ago and scratched the back of his head, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But I mean come on, who ever pays attention in our - wait.  _ Our _ astronomy class? You? And I? Have the same astronomy class?”

Lance found himself absolutely bewildered. Beautiful boy? In his astronomy class? And he not noticing? This guy was running in absolute circles around him. 

The boy in front of him sighed, “Yeah, we both have Coran’s four O’clock lecture. I’ve only been there for about two weeks though, I just transferred from a different college.”

Lance looked expectantly at him. Who was this guy? It was the middle of the winter semester. “Wow, having Coran with no intro in the middle of the winter semester? Must have been a trip.”

They both laughed at that. Sharing an all knowing look only college sophmores that were lucky enough to get Coran’s astronomy class could share. Most students agreed full heartedly that Coran was the most brilliant professor at Castle University, though undoubtedly, it was useless to try and completely understand the man because the moment one lucky student thought they had him figured out he’d leave everyone completely speechless and every conspiracy unraveling back to square one. Lance looked at the boy in front of him. He really was cute. He was slightly shorter than Lance and had soft black hair and an edgy style that shouldn’t have been acceptable for a near twenty year old but somehow it worked. Lance put on his most charming smile, or as Hunk called it, his regular smile. “Well, hey, nice too meet you. I’m Lance.”

“Keith.” The boy said back with a nod. Keith, that’s a nice name, Lance thought. Not as nice as Lance, of course, but it flowed nice. Somehow a little mysterious and fit the boy in front of him perfectly.

“So,” Lance drawled a bit cockily, looking down at Keith, “You noticed me then?”

He saw that it was Keith’s turn to flush slightly. “Yeah, well, only cause you were being so fucking loud.”

Lance pondered that, he was loud at all times. He was even being a bit loud now as they were speaking. Lance looked over his shoulder briefly at Hunk who was speaking animatedly to a taller, older, man. Who, frankly, could take Lance at anytime anywhere because it was just so that everyone who worked at this shop was ridiculously attractive. Lance looked back to Keith who was fixing him with a slight glare.

“Well, babe, what can I say,” Lance said loudly, giving Keith a cheeky smile, “I’m a hard man to forget.”

Keith’s face started to get red, in a totally non-adorable manner, and opened his mouth to retort but Hunk’s voice rang out over the two of them.

“Lance, Keith,” He said with his easy, lovely, all Hunk embodying smile, “I see you two have met.”


	2. Eighteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance doesn't have the words but he uses them anyway. Apparently, there are more ways to communicate than with just your voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone i'm back after an entire small ice age period. Thank you all so much for all the positive feedback on the previous chapter i'm in love with each and every one of you but if you don't feel the same no worries I understand. I plan to update more frequently now and also look out because this chapter got really angsty out of literally no where but I do as the brain commands. This story is pretty slow burn but don't worry there will be more Klance action in the next chapters to stay tuned ;) Thank you all!! Enjoy ! <3

Lance wondered if this was the ‘right amount of edgy for a tattoo artist’ person Hunk was talking about. Keith  _ certainly _ looked the part. He wore almost all black in varying shades of depth. Relaying to Lance that his sense of fashion was off the walls but in the Van’s shoe store kind of way. If he thought he could have any future with this boy,  _ Keith _ , square one would be to buy him nice, color coordinated clothes. Lance pondered, he thought Keith might look nice in blue or purple. Or red. Definitely red.

 Lance smirked and Keith gave him a glare that wasn’t quite harsh but more default. Lance wondered if his neutral expression was just an angry one. He supposed he’d be angry too if he had a mullet. Lance wondered as to how, for all this time, (two weeks) that he’d been basically stare stalking Keith, he’d managed to overlook his gigantic mullet. Though, all thoughts of mullet quickly faded away as Keith smiled softly and looked at Hunk happily. 

 “Hunk, hey man, it’s nice to see you. So, I see this is the _friend_ you were talking about. I can take you guys back into the workshop and show you the designs.” 

 Lance looked to Hunk who nodded excitedly. Lance knew Hunk had already seen the designs, and promptly raved about them, but Lance noticed Keith now seemed perfectly content to ignore Lance’s existence. That was fine. Lance did that to _himself_ on a daily basis. Some skater - punk kid could do the same. And that’s what he was, Lance realized. He couldn’t have been more than eighteen, but he obviously was taking sophomore classes in college.

 “Hey, wait,” Lance said as the trio walked down a nicely lit corridor. There were more obscure planets and galaxies and constellations painted along the walls. Lance decided these people had a _lot_ of time on their hands. “Keith, was it?” (Lance hadn’t forgotten his name.)

 “Yeah?” Keith asked. He looked annoyed but in a secretive kind of way. Lance figured it was Hunk, as the larger man looked hurriedly between the two. His head glancing from Lance to Keith and back again. Lance figured Keith was acting more reserved with his carnal rage because Hunk was there. Hunk just gave off a sort of calm aura that no one in their right mind would try to disrupt. Lance was glad Keith wasn’t some crazy outlier immune to Hunk’s all encompassing Samoan love. 

 “How old are you?” Lance asked. His voice came off more haughty than he originally planned but the show must go on. 

 “Excuse me?” Keith narrowed his eyes.

 Hunk looked to Lance pleadingly. 

 “Your age. What is it? You do know, right?” 

 Keith sighed dangerously. Almost a growl. Lance honestly wanted to be affected by it but the situation was so ridiculous he couldn’t help but snicker.

 “Well?” Lance asked, amused.

 “I’m - i’m twenty.” Keith mumbled.

 “No,” Lance said, almost sing songy. Christ, what was he doing? _I don’t even know this guy_ Lance thought to himself. _Who do I think I am? Who am I to tell him what his age is? Even though i’m right of course there’s no way he’s twenty but -_

 “Who do you think you are?” Keith asked, incredulously.

 Lance’s thought exactly.  

 “I’m just a guy who wants to know why another guy lies to said guy’s face about being eighteen.”

 Keith’s eyes grew wide. In a totally disgusting and not cute way at all, honestly, it was revolting and the furthest away from totally adorable it gets. 

 “How did you know that?”

 Lance looked around. “Honestly I have no idea how I knew you were eighteen but I knew you were _not_ twenty and - I don’t know you’ve got that stale eighteen year old _look_ to you, you know?” Keith sneered and Lance hurriedly opened his gaping mistake hole again. “No! No, I mean it’s cute. You’re cute - I mean it’s fine - it’s fine to be, uh, eighteen you know? I was just wondering why you were so, um, why you _are_ so young.”

 The hall seemed very still. Lance wondered how long they’d been standing there. He wondered if maybe they would’ve even left by now if he could've physically restrained himself from not talking for two minutes and offending everyone in sight. Which in retrospect, the “everyone in sight” he is offending is currently just one person, but this one person has made his life (the last two weeks) a living hell without even knowing it. And now he was making beautiful boy’s, _Keith’s_ , life (the last two minutes) a living hell because he couldn’t just keep his kind of intrusive questions to himself.  

 Hunk was biting his nails watching the two of them.

 “Um, okay, yeah,” Keith said, warily. “Yeah, i’m eighteen. I got moved up a grade when I was younger, so?” He said, a bit defensively, if Lance was picking up his social cues correct.

 “Holy shit! Dude that’s so cool. You must be like a genius, or something.”

 “Or something,” Keith muttered. Lance noticed he was blushing and now looking down. His dark eyes focused on their shoes rather than challenging the other set of blue eyes to a duel to the death. Score one for Lance, he currently moved up from negative five to negative four on the smoothness scale. 

 “Alright!” Lance clapped his hands together loudly, startling both Hunk and Keith. “Let’s see those designs, shall we?” He winked at Keith, and gestured for him to continue leading him and Hunk to the workshop.

 Hunk shouldered into Lance as they trailed behind Keith. “Nice going, Lance.” He whispered. He didn’t seem mad, thank every god in world religions class, but a little disappointed. Which was even worse.

 “Hey,” Lance whispered back in a volume that could’ve been heard in south-eastern China. “We have both seen me do a lot worse.”

 In front of him Lance saw Keith’s shoulder’s shake slightly. Either from contained laughter or extreme agitation. Lance almost stumbled in the hall from the sudden and extreme realization of how much he _liked_ Keith already. And how much he desperately wanted Keith to like him back. 

 They had only been joking but Lance remembered it vividly, the first time he was talking about his like for guys with Pidge. Everything seemed fuzzy about that memory, him liking some guy in the back of his geometry class. Lance wanting to find excuses to talk to him, he didn’t even know his name. All of it coming crashing down when Lance got too confident, too arrogant. Lance asking out the cute geometry guy while he was with his _girlfriend_. That had been a bad day. But most of it was gone, repressed, laughed out, forgotten. But even after how bad they’d felt, and how much Lance knew they hadn’t meant it. He hadn’t forgotten what Pidge had said when he told them about it. 

  _“Well, of course Lance,” They laughed. “You always fuck everything up.”_

 Lance was overwhelmed. He did fuck a lot of things up. That was a given. But he didn’t want it to be this. Out of all things he will have the opportunity to mess up in his life he so desperately didn’t want it to be this.

 Keith lead them into a small room, darker than any other part of the tattoo shop. On light boards in the center of the room were two drawings. 

 “Well,” Keith said, almost shy. “Here they are.” He slapped his arms against his side’s awkwardly and Lance smiled warmly. It was weird, but Keith was so strangely endearing in everything he did. Keith ducked his head and gave a tentative smile back. Nothing compared to Lance's _suave_ charm but still more than good enough. 

 “The design for you is over there on the left table,” Keith said. He lingered in the doorway, looking out of place even though he co-owned the shop. Lance wandered over to the table and stopped in front of it, leaning down to get a better look at the drawing.

 Lance felt his breath stick to the back of his throat. He wondered since he’s already embarrassed himself enough today if it would really matter if he started crying. It was gorgeous. He was tentative about lions when Hunk had first told him, but as he stared at the picture something was right about it. It was perfect. Of course Hunk was right. Lance stared at the lion, painted a deep shade of blue and surrounded by an almost alien aura. He could feel the lion and it felt like home. It reminded him of the ocean and his family and everything he missed the most all in that very moment.

 “Lance?” Hunk said gently by his ear. He was worried, Lance could tell just by the way he held himself. “Is it okay? Do you like it? I’m sorry I didn’t let you pick it out yourself I just saw Keith’s artwork and I knew he could do this and I knew what you wanted and I thought this would be right but I totally understand if -” 

 Lance cut Hunk off with an aggressive hug. He felt a tear slip down his cheek and was an equal amount of embarrassed and care - free. “It’s perfect, Hunk. It’s beautiful, it’s perfect.” His voice was watery.

 Lance looked to Keith. Keith looked genuinely startled, Lance wondered if anyone had ever acted so dramatically over his artwork before. “You - you made this?” Lance asked. Keith nodded, his shoulders going in on themselves. “This, is literally the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It’s perfect. And i’m going to get it needled on my body forever.” 

 He started to laugh. Keith and Hunk both started laughing because of Lance and the total absurdity of the situation. Lance grabbed Keith by the shoulder. “Thank you, thank you,” Lance said while he hoped he didn’t look _too_ lovingly into Keith’s eyes. 

 Keith smiled back. Lance didn't know what this was yet, or where it would go. But he knew he didn’t want to lose it.


	3. The Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk has the fabled Talk with Lance. Not about the birds and the bees, but they are dying at an alarming rate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Sorry i'm literally the worst. I've been procrastinating on this fic so hard because I felt like every writing ability i've ever had in my entire life went on a short holiday to Iowa but luckily I procrastinated so hard on school work I wrote this!! You guys are so supportive I literally cry out of joy just looking at each and everyone of your beautiful virtual faces
> 
> Lmao okay now about the chapter. I'm sorry this is so short. I will try as hard as my weak, ice cream filled, heart can do to get chapter 4 out as soon as possible. But here we get to see Lance and Hunk's a+ friendship and why Hunk is a real bro. Love you all, please enjoy. Also sorry this chapter is literally just dialog, but hey, character development ;)

“Wow,”  Hunk said. His voice was loud against the previous silence and the soft lull of the air conditioning in the car.

“What?” Lance asked.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously, Hunk. What’s up? Is everything okay?” Lance questioned.

“Yeah, just,” Hunk sighed and paused for a moment, changing lanes with an expertise Lance and his shaky hands had never gotten around to mastering. “Someone I know is, sick.”

“ _ What?” _

“Yeah man it’s been on my mind for a while. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier I just wasn't sure how bad it was, if it was anything at all. But now I know, it’s really bad.”

“Oh my god,” Lance gasped, “Hunk, man, i’m so sorry. What’s wrong with them?”

“Well I mean they’re just sick. Really sick.  _ Disgustingly sick _ . Sick in love!” Hunk shouted at Lance, laughing.

“Wow. Okay.” Lance said.

“Hey, man, i’m actually a little concerned. What was that in there?”

“What was what?!” Lance snapped. Of course he didn’t want to be harsh towards his best friend, but, come on. He’s a man. Men have needs. His need is simple, simpler than a lot of needs. He’s a man that wants a man. Easy. Just recently turned a man, apparently. Jeez, does that make him like a cougar? Is there a male equivalent to a cougar? Lance pondered. Is it just the same thing, no gender roles needed? Well he was getting a tattoo of a  _ lion _ . Christ, his own conspiracy was folding in on itself.

“I have never seen you so emotional in my entire life.”

“Hey!” Lance tried to think of anyway under the overly hot sun to defend himself, “I mean i’m twenty years old. That’s a milestone, I think.”

“Pretty sure that’s twenty one.” Hunk interjected.

“Alcohol is below me, Hunk.”

Hunk snorted, but said nothing. Focusing on the tail-gaiter that had little to no human decency.

“Okay, whatever,” Lance continued, “Maybe the excitement of chasing after a young man is an additional necessity from the excitement of getting something permanently pinned into my body forever.”

Hunk sighed, Lance noticed he’d been doing a lot of that recently. He made a sharp cross into the left lane and pulled into a practically abandoned Walgreens parking lot. Lance had taken account from college life that Walgreens was the most particularly active around two pm and four am.

“Okay, first, you were the one who suggested we get tattoo’s, Lance, and you are  _ also _ the person who’s been complaining about it the most.”

Lance muttered and sank into his chair. “Fair.”

“Second, you are only two years older than Keith.”

“Two years is a -”

“Oh my god, Lance!” Hunk laughed, “No, no it is not. In this car, at this moment, two years is equivalent to nothing.”

“Fine, fine.” Lance laughed along.

“And also Lance, I really hope this doesn’t come out as super weird or anything but, uh,”

“Hunk,” Lance sighed, “I tell you at least three times everyday that you can tell me literally anything in the entire world and you will still always be my best friend.”

Hunk took a deep breath. “Okay so I actually met Keith when he first transferred here and I watched him take his skateboard while we walked out of my engineering class; and I mean where else would you take a skateboard other than the skate park? I’m no expert or anything don’t quote me but other than like, a sidewalk I don’t -”

“Hunk,” Lance said with an extreme and totally flawless level of patience.

“Right, okay, so when you and I were walking that day I knew that was Keith from the second you nearly ogled him to death but I had to play dumb to further the plan I had concocted at that very second.”

Lance tried to hold his head, wondering if it would keep his mind from spinning.

“So the next day in engineering class I try to talk to him to find out every piece of information I can about his person because i’m an amazing friend. And I deserve some bonus points Lance, because let me tell you that was not an easy task. Trying to get Keith to open up to me in even the slightest was like trying to sympathize with a rock frozen in the ice-age period and left in high danger wilderness Alaska. But it was worth it and by the end of the period Keith had melted into a small little pebble on a gentle beach in Miami.”

Lance noticed Hunk had stopped his rambling for a couple seconds and realized now he was supposed to say something. “Wow, um, okay. Yeah he was a little, hostile, I guess. Good work Hunk.”

“Thank you,” Hunk’s smile had an edge Lance couldn’t comprehend and felt immense fear of. “So, what do you know, the next day, our little pebble boy comes wandering up to me in engineering. Asking about a special someone.”

Lance smacked his own forehead, “God, of course. He likes Allura doesn’t he?”

“Yes! Wait, what? No, I, Lance, Allura hasn’t been in this story even once. Where would that come from.”

“Sorry, just assuming the worst. Who was the special person?”

Hunk looked lost. “Lance, he was, he was asking about you. You. You are the special person.”

Lance’s head pounded. Him? Pebble boy -  _ Keith _ \- was asking about, him? “Oh,” Lance gasped dumbly.

“Yeah, so, my plan was already falling in motion and I hadn’t really done anything yet. You mentioned that fateful day a week ago that we should go get tattoos, and I remembered from earlier in the period Pidge had told me that during their math class Keith had told them he works in a tattoo shop so -”

“Wait, wait, wait,  _ wait _ .” Lance interjected, “Keith, our pebble boy, is in  _ Pidge's _ math class? Our Pidge? Who’s in a college senior math class?”

“Appears so,” Hunk said sagely, obviously noticing Lance’s average C student stress. “But! Here’s the kicker, you know everything that happens next, we go to Paladin, you fall in love, blah blah -”

“ _ Hey _ ,” Lance warned, but Hunk payed him no mind and kept rambling with his annoying brilliant mouth. “Wait, also, Pidge is in on my embarrassing crush that has apparently turned into a whole unraveling conspiracy too?”

“Yeah,” Hunk said flippantly, like Lance should’ve just assumed it from the beginning, “Also Lance you never let me get to the kicker. Here it is, the kicker, here’s the kicker.  _ You _ suck at math and  _ Keith _ sucks at language!”

Lance looked at Hunk blankly. Well, that was the kicker. Hunk sighed.

“Let me reiterate, you need help in math. Like, serious help Lance. Keith needs help in his foreign language class. His  _ spanish _ class.” Hunk leaned forward with every syllable in the world  _ spanish _ (two) towards Lance scrunched in the passenger seat. It did take a second or two, but Lance sat up straight.

“I’ve got it, Hunk! I can tutor him in Spanish and he can tutor me in Math.”

“Incredible Lance, I do not know how you came to that conclusion. Perfect.”

Lance snorted and lightly punched Hunk on the arm.

“Yeah man I just, I know that you really do like him Lance. That much was evident just in the shop. He’s a good guy. You just have to give him a chance and he just has to give you a chance. You guy’s working out, that would be really cool.”

Lance sighed, “Yeah, I wanna get that skater boy. Let’s just hope he doesn’t say ‘see you later boy’.” Lance laughed and winked at Hunk, whose expression remained unreadable.

“What?” Hunk asked.

“You know, like, he was a skater boy, she said see you later boy. He wasn’t good enough for her?”

Hunk breathed for a moment, “That was a test Lance. I was testing you. You’re not going to get the date doing stuff like that.”

It was silent for a moment before they both bursted into laughter. Lance couldn’t do this without Hunk. He wasn’t sure he could do this at all.


End file.
